STOCK EXCHANGES
TPEX to hold HK conference
The Taipei Exchange (TPEX) yesterday said it is organizing a large overseas investors’ conference to attract more foreign institutional investors. Joining forces with Capital Securities Corp (群益金鼎證券), one of the nation’s largest securities houses, TPEX is to hold a two-day investor conference in Hong Kong on Thursday and Friday next week covering 17 companies listed on the local market, TPEX said. Representatives from a wide range of industries are to hold about 270 separate meetings with interested foreign institutional investors at the event, the exchange said. Foreign institutional investors that attend the meetings run investment funds worth about US$580 billion. After the conference in Hong Kong, the TPEX plans to hold similar events in Japan and Malaysia. Foreign institutional investors accounted for 22.6 percent of the market’s total value last year.
FASTENERS
QST to acquire Chinese unit
QST International Corp (恒耀), which produces and distributes fasteners, yesterday said it would spend US$64 million to acquire its Chinese subsidiary Boltun BVI Corp to simplify its management structure. QST has a 55 percent stake in the Chinese unit, which last year generated revenue of 770 million yuan (US$122.7 million) and a net profit of 125.16 million yuan, company data showed. The acquisition is to be complete in the third quarter of this year, QST said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The fastener maker said in a separate filing that it is planning to take out a syndicated loan of between NT$2 billion and NT$3 billion (US$68.6 million and US$102.9 million).
TELECOMS
FET unveils new rate plans
Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (FET, 遠傳電信) yesterday unveiled new rate plans for subscribers, who can get free membership at Fitness Factory (健身工廠) or free training programs. FET hopes the new offering would help boost average revenue per user. FET subscribers can choose to sign a service contract with a minimum monthly fee of NT$599, NT$999 or NT$1,399 for 30 months. Most telecoms used to subsidize the price of handsets to retain users, but they have shifted their subsidies to purchases of items beyond mobile phones. Hair dryers, Dyson vacuum cleaners and Gogoro electric scooters are all on FET’s subsidy list.
HOSPITALITY
Shining opens Nanjing hotel
Shining Group (鄉林集團), the parent group of The Lalu (涵碧樓), a luxury hotel brand, yesterday opened a new property in Nanjing, China, as it seeks to boost its presence in the Chinese market and on the world stage. The Lalu Nanjing is the brand’s third outlet after the Lalu Sun Moon Lake in Nantou County and a property in China’s Qingdao. Shining Group chairman Lai Cheng-yi (賴正鎰) said the group is separating its property development from its hospitality business as the latter grows in scale and earnings contribution. The hospitality arm next plans to open an outlet in Chengdu and is mulling a Chinese initial public offering.
STEELMAKERS
Yieh Phui proposes dividend
Yieh Phui Enterprise Co (燁輝) yesterday said its management team has proposed distributing a cash dividend of NT$0.2 based on last year’s net profit of NT$1.37 billion, or earnings per share of NT$0.75. The firm plans to hold its annual shareholders’ meeting on June 21 to discuss the dividend proposal. Yieh Phui shares yesterday edged up 0.47 percent to close at NT$10.8 in Taipei trading.
OpenAI has warned US lawmakers that its Chinese rival DeepSeek (深度求索) is using unfair and increasingly sophisticated methods to extract results from leading US artificial intelligence (AI) models to train the next generation of its breakthrough R1 chatbot, a memo reviewed by Bloomberg News showed. In the memo, sent on Thursday to the US House of Representatives Select Committee on China, OpenAI said that DeepSeek had used so-called distillation techniques as part of “ongoing efforts to free-ride on the capabilities developed by OpenAI and other US frontier labs.” The company said it had detected “new, obfuscated methods” designed to evade OpenAI’s defenses
NEW IMPORTS: Car dealer PG Union Corp said it would consider introducing US-made models such as the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Stellantis’ RAM 1500 to Taiwan Tesla Taiwan yesterday said that it does not plan to cut its car prices in the wake of Washington and Taipei signing the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade on Thursday to eliminate tariffs on US-made cars. On the other hand, Mercedes-Benz Taiwan said it is planning to lower the price of its five models imported from the US after the zero tariff comes into effect. Tesla in a statement said it has no plan to adjust the prices of the US-made Model 3, Model S and Model X as tariffs are not the only factor the automaker uses to determine pricing policies. Tesla said
China’s top chipmaker has warned that breakaway spending on artificial intelligence (AI) chips is bringing forward years of future demand, raising the risk that some data centers could sit idle. “Companies would love to build 10 years’ worth of data center capacity within one or two years,” Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) cochief executive officer Zhao Haijun (趙海軍) said yesterday on a call with analysts. “As for what exactly these data centers will do, that hasn’t been fully thought through.” Moody’s Ratings projects that AI-related infrastructure investment would exceed US$3 trillion over the next five years, as developers pour eye-watering sums
Australian singer Kylie Minogue says “nothing compares” to performing live, but becoming an international wine magnate in under six years has been quite a thrill for the Spinning Around star. Minogue launched her first own-label wine in 2020 in partnership with celebrity drinks expert Paul Schaafsma, starting with a basic rose but quickly expanding to include sparkling, no-alcohol and premium rose offerings. The actress and singer has since wracked up sales of around 25 million bottles, with her carefully branded products pitched at low-to mid-range prices in dozens of countries. Britain, Australia and the United States are the biggest markets. “Nothing compares to performing
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